When I left the arena of clinical dietetics in which I worked in the neonatal and adult medical areas and accepted a position with OSU Extension 14 years ago, OSU Extension did not offer an Onboarding Program. We did have an “orientation day” on campus but otherwise our orientation was in the county and with our mentor. (Argabright, 2014) At that time we were assigned one mentor to help guide us and answer our questions. The mentor was from the same program area and close geographic vicinity but that may have been where the similarities ended. The mentor may not have shared a specialization or area of interest with me at all. I believe I fell in the category of the “sink or swim” situation described by Derven (2008) and the readings mentioned that compelling evidence shows this really is not an effective way to guide and hopefully retain those in one’s organization.
The size and complexity of OSU Extension was a major hurdle for me. (Derven, 2008) I muddled along with many programs, most of which are still continuing in some form today, but many of those came about because of seeking out ideas on my own or researching on line, calling specialists, or others in the field. As examples I started a youth cooking class for juvenile offenders and their families in conjunction with the juvenile court, an adult to youth mentoring program with two schools. I also started a truancy school for students and families, that the Judge in the county requested and numerous nutrition programs with the hospital and health department.
Fast forward 12 years when many FCS Educators were accepting the early retirement offer and our county began having financial difficulties. It was appearing that the county would only have the funds to support a 4H Educator. The OSU Extension structural model at that time involved EERA leaders. Our EERA leader, who would be retiring, approached me about a “new opportunity.” With all the FCS vacancies in the Erie Basin she explained that there would be no coverage for the SNAP-Ed (then FNP) program assistants in many counties. FCS and OSU Extension Administration were interested in having a pilot or trial position to help cover those program assistants in the 10 county area that were without programmatic supervision. Although apprehensive, I moved into this position. I had never been a County Director, thus had never worked with the budget, purchasing, and other areas of hiring and training, but I soon learned this would all fall under my responsibilities. How was I going to learn about purchasing, budgets, hiring and training and all the other skills I needed? Who would I call and turn to? What happened if I failed? Reese (2005) talks about “old road maps helping to provide a sense of direction, but new positions meaning new territory to navigate.” I really was in a world of “new.”
I would have loved to have an Onboarding Program that allowed me to learn the OSU Extension purchasing, budgets, hiring and other human resource policies and procedures. I was very lucky to have a Community Nutrition Leader that had years of experience who was only an email and phone call away. And that became my umbilical cord/mentor. I would email or call Joyce when the unexpected or novel request or question arose and work through it in each situation, as each county was vastly different. I also took it upon myself to schedule meetings, referred to as self-directed in this week’s PowerPoint, (Argabright, 2014) with the Business Office Manager and the person at OSP who processes all of our expenses. I spent a day with each to see what I could glean from their work that would help me in my new world. Unexplored in the area of positions, we as a team looked at pros and cons of this type of a position possibly becoming the norm. Every week we held a conference call to catch up and discuss what was and was not working, what had been accomplished that week, etc…. This actually allowed for timely performance feedback between the Community Nutrition Leader, Director, and FCS AD as well as other state programmatic staff. (Reese, 2005)
Other structural changes such as Educators leaving to take field specialist positions created more need for the SNAP-Ed coverage in EERAs and soon I was piloting a 20 county area as opposed to a 10 county. With the retirement of the Community Nutrition Leader, my source of knowledge was gone, and now we have new grant guidance as well as the Regional Program Specialists positions created. As I applied and moved into this position, I had a little more experience, mostly learned the “hard way” that now I could share with our team. Again an Onboarding Program would have been so helpful. The other two program specialists had had some County Director experience, which does help, and all three of us work together, very well, in my opinion. We not only work on projects together, but email, call and text each other scenarios and situations that we work through together. I love our team and enjoy the job very much, but could I have performed better with more direction and guidance early on?
How might our experience have looked had we had an Onboarding experience at the start? What theories come to mind as I look at our situation? Vroom’s Expectancy theory? Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? Motivation and Hygiene theory? So many diverse and unique county situations, personalities of program assistants and county office staff and so much to figure out and learn. Wonderful experience, but maybe less intimidating and stressful with a great onboarding program and support! (Argabright, 2014) I am very happy and supportive of OSU Extension having such a program and believe it will only make our organization better and stronger!
References:
Argabright, K. (2014). Motivation, Supervision, and Onboarding. Video PPT.
Derven, M., (2008). Management onboarding, T&D, 49-52.
Reese, V. (2005). Maximizing your retention and productivity with on-boarding. Retrived from: www.interscience.wiley.com.